I had a lot of fun baking this bread and making this video. There’s an overnight sourdough bread formula in my book, but this one is different. The dough has whole wheat, rye and bread flour and is very sticky with a high hydration. You will see how to handle a very sticky dough.

This is a companion post to the post Fig-caccia! If you want to make Cheesy Topped Loaf, the formula is at: Fig-caccia!

I made the dough using the formula found on the linked page. I used half of the dough for the Fig-caccia! and half of the dough for the Cheesy Topped Loaf. The dough is 77% hydration and wet, but not too wet as I used a large amount of whole grain flour in the formula. Continue reading Cheesy Topped Loaf

I’ve been busy all summer, baking at the new bakery in town. So I haven’t had a lot of time for baking in my own home. Today however, I decided to be creative and do something new. My sweetheart bought me some fresh figs because he knows how much I love figs. Continue reading Fig-caccia!

My wonderful mom sent me some Quinoa. I am not sure why, except she knows I like to experiment with grains/flour/seeds etc. So I experimented with the Quinoa, which really isn’t a grain but a seed which can be ground into a flour. The smell and flavor was very good, so much so, that I made three batches so I could share it around.

This recipe was inspired by Sue, who tries to maintain a low sugar, whole grain diet as she battles cancer with courage and humor. She wrote of this recipe, “According to my Anti-Cancer book, sourdough bread is in a class by itself and is allowed on the diet even if not whole wheat, so this must be doubly good for me.”

However, Ray Glaze was the moving force behind this bread and we worked together to produce it. He also named it Pink Wig in honor of Sue. May this bread also honor all survivors and victims of cancer.

I’ve been working with the Desem in new recipes and having absolutely fabulous results. Here is a Desem bread I call Light Wheat Desem and another that I am in the process of working with called Desem Milk ‘N Honey. Here are pictures of the Light Wheat Desem:

This is the overnight preferment:

This turned out to be a really great bread. The preferment had a malted cracked Rye berry in it. The taste was incredible. I am also working on a Medium Desem with a bit more of the whole grain flour in it. I will get back on that one. I might be putting the two recipes in the Special Recipe folder when I get them worked out.

I had several emails asking me how I do my Desem bread, technique, recipe etc. So here goes…

I have been keeping an 80% hydration Desem in a bowl in the refrigerator. It has been easier to feed, and easier to use.

80% hydration just means approximately twice the amount of flour to water ratio. Like a cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water etc. Or for every five ounces of flour/ four ounces of water. Anyway, I take out one and one half cups of active 80% Desem which was fed the day before and make a preferment the night before I am going to bake. Preferment:

1 – 1/2 cup 80% hydration active Desem starter - 13.5 oz

1 – 1/2 cups water room temperature – 12 oz

3 cups organic Whole Wheat flour aged at least one week 13.5 oz

Desem preferment after mixing:

Desem preferment the next morning:

Mix together the preferment ingredients, cover and let ferment overnight at room temperature. Next morning add the preferment mixture to your dough mixer and add:

2 cups water room temperature – 16 oz

Turn the mixer on low and add 6 cups whole wheat flour – 27 oz

After the dough is mixed turn off your mixer and let the dough autolyse for ten – 15 minutes.

Desem right after mixing:

After autolyse, add:

4 teaspoons Kosher salt – .8 oz

turn the mixer on low and let it knead the dough for about 7 minutes. If you notice the dough tearing as it kneads, turn off the mixer no matter how long it has been mixing.

Desem dough after autolyse and 7 minutes of mixing:

Let the dough proof 4 – 5 hours or when about doubled. Then stir down dough, pour it out and shape loaves.

I made two loaves a little over 2.5 lbs each. I then let the dough proof about 2 – 2.5 hours. When ready bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, slashing and steaming and turning loaf halfway, as usual.( I have been slashing, spraying my loaves once, and then covering the dough with a roasting lid for the first ten minutes, as it is easiest and seems to give great results).

First Desem loaf:

Second Desem loaf:

Here is the crumb from the first loaf:

So there you have it, recipe, technique and all ! Once you taste a loaf of Desem, you will go back to baking it over and over, it is that good, and addicting!

I really love the flavor of Desem sourdough bread. It is actually addicting! It is always sour, and when toasted, it tastes like malted wheat. I made up another batch of Desem, but this time I was more careful to use wheat berries that I had ground and let season (age) for two weeks. I had read that the mills did that because freshly ground wheat does not bake up as well as aged flour. Well, it seems to be true. I got a great development of gluten and the dough handled better. I am really getting a nice open crumb for a 100% Whole Wheat flour bread. Of course, as you know, the only other ingredients are water, salt (I have been using Kosher salt) and the wild Desem yeast. That makes for a nice loaf of bread devoid of chemicals or other ingredients that may have been processed. I have pure artesian water that has no chemicals in it, so I am really lucky there. Here is the preferment that is ready to use for making a Desem dough:

I mixed the dough for nine minutes as that is when it looked done:

After bulk fermenting for four hours I shaped and benched (rested) the dough:

Then came final shaping and proofing:

This time I did not proof in a very warm, humid environment but just allowed the dough to proof at room temperature. It took around 2.5 hours. I then baked at 425 for 30 minutes. Here is the first loaf:

Here is the second loaf:

Here is the crumb, as you can see it is nice, open and nicely textured:

There is a lot more leeway for using and baking with Desem. If you have a Desem starter, I would encourage you to experiment.